Why is buying a new horse so difficult?

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BigHrider

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I am currently looking for a youngster to start working with for when my veteran horse decides he has had enough.
I am looking at 4 years olds that possibly have the potential to do some advanced level dressage.
I have now had two horses vetted and unfortunately neither of them passed. Both of them had issues with their legs.
It is a great learning experience but it is an expensive one too!!!
Has anyone else had a tough time finding their horse?
 
I had a fairly hard time. I only vetted the one - Darcy but i seemed to travel across the whole of the SE and back again.
Eeep!
 
Yep, youngster no3 vetted tomorrow. The first was 4 who i wanted to bring on as a poss eventer, knew he needed shoeing but the vet felt there was a problem in the pelvis that would cause probs later on, this in a horse who has only just come into work after the winter (lunged twice). could only feel it with deep palpation but failed so i ran away. the second was a yearling who went thro an electric fence just before the vetting, was told it was ok but vet refused to do it as was so lame. owner wouldnt wait the 2 weeks to revet so wished her luck selling lame horse and left her to it. yearling no3 seems better in that i actually like the people and they werent horrified about vetting it (other owners thought i was mad but i don't want their broken horse!). I'm only trying to do a 2 stage as well!!
 
A bit small i'm afraid but very nice, woudn't let him go without the money in my hand!! No 3 is a tb, 16months bred to race/ point to point but never been on the track and has siblings who have evented. Nice people perfectly happy for vetting whereas the prev one was taking the mick really. You could always say you'll take a deposit to hold him and give them a time limit to get the money together.
 
I had a nightmare time when I was looking for Paddy - lots of wasted visits - many horses nothing like what advertised adn eventually for the first time ever I went to a dealer and have a cracker now!
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Oh don't start me on the woes of buying horses, it seems that the more money I have to spend the harder it gets (or could possibly be the more money I have the more fussy I get!) I also am looking for what you are looking for, if you find a magic yard with good quality young horses for dressage please let me know!!!!
 
I think the worst thing you can do to try & find the horse you want is to start searching the internet. You will see horses from all over the country & then you'll do hundreds of miles to view them & invariably they won't be as described.

My first one I found advertised in H&H, he was the second horse I went to view & just knew he was the one for us. The deal was struck on the spot pending vetting. Even negociated 20% off the asking price. I still have him & he's great, lovely horse, jumps Newcomers, will shortly do Fox & does a nice dressage test as well.

Last horse we got via a dealer. Some people have an aversion to going to a dealer, but if you go to the right one he'll fix you up with your ideal horse. We bought one, he's wonderful, the dealer made his money & we are very happy with what we paid. He has great bloodline & scope to burn. To be honest I haven't found buying horses stressful. If you travel all over the country chasing internet horses then that will be stressful & expensive in time & diesel. I believe you should be able to find your ideal horse within 50 miles of home, I did.

Good Luck, don't rely on the internet, there are loads of quality horses that never appear on the internet.

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I hated it. Thought it would be fun, as loan horses and borrowed rides had always 'found me' before. OK we were looking for something very specific but why do people have to be so dishonest? We travelled 2hrs each to look at 1. a 3yo with huge sarcoids that the vendor had forgotten to mention when we met him at a show 2. a 3yo with a massive splint and scars from an accident that her owner had also 'forgotten' to mention.
One vendor advertised her horse for sale and then told us it was another hour away from us than her own yard (so a three hour hike) and then wasn't available for the next three weekends.
No wonder we eventually went back to the first horse we'd seen!
 
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I believe you should be able to find your ideal horse within 50 miles of home, I did.


[/ QUOTE ]

Haha, I bought all three abroad
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(Admittedly, I didn't really need two of them...it just...kind of happened
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)

If you're looking for really good dressage horses I think you should go to Germany, if you fly Ryanair it's probably cheaper than driving around in the UK
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Can't say I envy you. All I was looking for was a light hack or companion, but I may as well have set out looking for a unicorn!!! Happily I FINALLY found one. Glad to be out of that particular rat-race!!
 
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